Talk to stress Union Navy’s role in Civil War

Historian to speak Monday

CROMWELL — The land battles, including Gettysburg and Antietam, get the lion’s share of the attention when Americans look back to the great wounding that was the Civil War.

But the war at sea tends to get less — much less — attention, save perhaps for the 1862 battle that pitted two ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack, against one another.

In a program set for Monday, a naval historian intends to defend his thesis that it was the Union Navy that actually won the war. “How the U.S. Navy Won the American Civil War” is being presented by the Cromwell Historical Society at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Cromwell, 355 Main St.

The speaker is Chuck Veit, a Massachusetts native, graphic designer and naval historian who has published five books on 19th-century American naval history.

“In the 150-plus years since the Rebellion, the contributions of the federal navy to Union victory have been much diminished in popular perception,” CHS President Richard F. Donohue said in a flier announcing the program.

“Using period data and quotes, this discussion presents evidence quite to the contrary — that the Navy not only played a much more major role than is believed, but that their efforts might well have been the deciding factor in the war,” Donohue continued.

One of the Navy’s main roles in the early years of the war was to mount a blockade to keep Confederates from acquiring the goods — and arms — necessary to continue their War of Secession. The U.S. Navy occasionally took part in amphibious attacks — supporting Grant’s encirclement of Vicksburg in 1863 and the battles of New Orleans in 1862 and Mobile Bay in 1864.

In a coordinated land/sea assault, Adm. David G. Farragut led the Union attack on board his flagship, the USS Hartford, crying out the dramatic order, “Damn the torpedoes (mines), full speed ahead!”

The Confederacy had a navy of sorts, comprised mainly of Union ships it seized or captured, sleek blockade runners that often outran Union warships, and commerce raiders, pursuit ships that sought to punish the commercial shipping.

The most famous of the raiders was the Englishbuilt CSA Alabama, which roamed far and wide and its two-year career sank an astonishing 65 Union commercial ships (as opposed to warships).

Captained by the dashing Raphael Semmes, the Alabama met its fate off the coast of Cherbourg, France, in June, 1864. In a dramatic showdown with the USS Kearsarge, the Alabama was sunk, although Semmes and 41 crewmen escaped in an English yacht.

After the battle, the noted French artist Edouard Manet produced two paintings of the encounter.

The clash of the Monitor and Merrimack was deemed a draw of sorts, although the Merrimack retired from the battle and never again attacked Union shipping. The outcome was of less importance than the use of ironclad ships, which led to the demise of wooden ships and the rise of ships made first of iron and then steel.

Monday’s program is free, although Donohue said donations are welcome. Refreshments will be served following the conclusion of Veit’s address.

Veit’s talk “is a fitting program for the Cromwell Historical Society as we are preparing for our Navalthemed Juleps & Viragoes Ball of the Rebellion in April,” Donohue said.

For information, see cromwellhistory.org.

File photo A cannon crew in Virginia fires at a ship as it re-enacts the role of land-based soldiers in a naval battle from the Civil War.